Manufacture of brooms and brushes



y 1 1932- c. BARNETT ET AL 1,867,487

MANUFACTURE OF BROOMS AND BRUSHES Filed April 19, 1950 Fig.1

ATTORNEY Patented July 12, 1932 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE OF BROOMS AND BRUSHES Application filed April 19, 1930, Serial No. 445,695, and in Great Britain April 26, 1929.

This invention relates to the manufacture of brooms and brushes, and has for its ob]ect to provide an improved mechanical method of forming a tuft or knot of the bristle, bass or other brush making material which will hereinafter be referred to as bristle.

In the ordinary method of manufacture of brooms the knots or tufts (hereinafter called knots) are bound at one end by hand are then 1 placed into the broom stock and set in pltch and while the pitch is still soft, the operator gives a twist to the bristles which causes them to take up a flared or conical form.

Attempts have been made to manufacture knots by machinery by crimping or otherwise compressing a sleeve, cup or other binding around a bundle of bristles placed therein, and in some cases the contraction was made sufficiently tightly to cause the indi vidual bristles to be flared out into a conical form; this conical form, however, was obtained by causing each bristle to be bent at the point at which it left the binding, and this bending has been found to weaken the bristles so that they soon tend to break at this point or the knots lose their conical form.

In accordance with the present invention, a knot for a broom or brush is formed by enclosing the bristles in a binding and twisting the free ends of the bristles relative to the binding prior to the complete closure of the binding upon the bristles.

During the process of contracting the sleeve is preferably rotated relatively to the free ends of the bristles, thus assisting in the maintenance of the bristles in the correct position in relation to the sleeve cup or binding.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention in a diagrammatic manner.

Fig. 1 represents a preferred form of broom knot according to the invention.

a Fig. 2 represents a preferred form of sleeve 0 prior to its threading on to the knot of the bristles.

In the preferred method of carrying out the invention a sleeve a of conical form is provided with corrugations inclined to the generating lines of the cone and to the axis of the sleeve. The sleeve is preferably open at the bottom but may be a closed sleeve or cup. 7

A knot of bristles is then inserted into this sleeve (or the sleeve is threaded on to the bristles) the end of the sleeve of greater diameter passing just over the knot.

The sleeve is then contracted by dies which preferably follow the inclined corrugations therein, and the sleeve is preferably given a rotating movement relatively to the top of the knot.

With this method of manufacture the individual bristles leave the sleeve or cup in a direction slightly inclined to planes passing through the axis of the knot and intersecting the bristles at the points at which they leave the sleeve.

Suitable apparatus for carrying out the above-mentioned operations is described in specification Serial No. 445,694 of even date herewith.

We claim y 1. A method of forming a knot for a broom or brush consisting in enclosing the bristles in a binding, twisting the free ends of the bristles relatively to the binding, and closing the binding upon the bristles.

2. A method of forming a knot for a broom or brush consisting in contracting a sleeve placed around one end of a bundle of bristles and rotating the sleeve relatively to the free ends of the bristles during the contracting action substantially as described.

3. A method of forming a knot for a broom or brush consisting in placing upon a bundle of bristles, a conical sleeve provided with grooves or corrugations inclined to the generating lines of the sleeve, contracting the sleeve around the bristles and subjecting the tuft to a twisting movement during the con tracting action substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signa tures.

CHARLES BARNETT. WILLIAM BARNETT. 

